Improvement in materials for the manufacture oftextile fabrics



NITED STATES PATENT Prion.

HENRY VAN PHUL DRAPER, OF HANNIBAL,.MISSOURI, ASSIGNOR TO JAMES H. MQOONNELL, OF SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS.

IMPROVEMENT IN MATERIALS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF TEXTILE FABRICS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 119,083, dated September 19, 1871.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY VAN PHUL DRA- PER, of Hannibal, in the county of Marion and State of Missouri, have discovered and produced a new and useful Material for the Manufactureof Textile Fabrics, Cordage, and Twine, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The material to which. I have reference is the lint of the plant called by botanists Abutz'lon am'cenme, but, like most plants, having various local names, as mormon weed, stamp weed,-

&c., and is found growing wild and in great profusion in Missouri, Illinois, and other States.

In order to prepare the plant for the purpose of manufacture it maybe submitted to the usual rotting processes, either by water or dew, used with hemp, but I prefer the dew-rotting process as it is cheaper, for it requires much less handling than hemp when dew-rotted. It can be well dew-rotted as it stands in the field, the lint separating very readily fromthe stalk, and the leaves falling off very soon after maturity on the first approach of frost. The lint may be stripped off in any convenient manner, and to remove the thin skin surrounding the lint it may be roughly hatcheled, though running it through a mill or ordinary brake will remove a great deal of the skin. Of course, the finer the article to be manufactured the more carefully must the preliminary preparations be carried out. After the lint is obtained it may be submitted to any of the usual processes of weaving applicable to hemp and the like, or made into rope or twine in the ordinary way. Of course, this lint may be used with other substances in the manufacture of textile fabrics, twine, and rope, as fancy may dietate or necessity require; and therefore I do not design to Limit myself to its use alone, uncombined with other materials now known.

I do not claim any originality in the process- 

